Last Sunday morning, I was all around church as the service was happening. I ended up with my two little girls in the Family Room as Pastor Michael was nearing the end of the message, and what he said really caught my attention. I knew that I wanted to go home and listen to the rest of the sermon he preached on Psalm 51 and about David’s sin preceding his confession.For years I have struggled with...

Discipleship: It’s for Everyone!I spent at least thirty years of my life wishing I could be discipled. I don't think I'm alone in this desire. For many years, there were older women that I wanted to sit beside in the hopes that what they had would rub off on me. Unfortunately, I never had the guts nor the vocabulary to ask them. Yes, I was timid, but along with that, I was not in a church where I ...

Connection within Community: Church Small GroupsNoah Webster, in his 1828 dictionary, defines connection as “a state of being knit or fastened together.” In this definition, a bond is formed. All the way back to Genesis, we learn that human beings were not created to be alone (Genesis 2:18). When God created Eve, it was so that Adam would have a helpmate and not be alone. God knew community was vi...

Connection: How to Resist the Winter Blues I leave work at 5:00 p.m. It’s already dark, it’s raining for the fourth time this week, and the trees are bare and shriveled. I pull out the weather app, and it says the low is 6 degrees. As someone who was born and raised in Florida and Alabama, this does not bode well with me. Overall, I feel the weight of an inexplicable melancholy permeating everythi...

Love God. Love Others.One of the great take-aways that I have received from Cornerstone has been the “Up, Out, and In” principle of love. Loving God is upward, loving others is outward, and loving ourselves is inward. These are intrinsically tied to one another; loving God requires loving others, and loving others requires a love of self (not to be confused with worship of self, which is sinful). ...

1 Corinthians 13 is one of the most well-known and quoted passages in the entire Bible. It’s often read at weddings or taught at youth events. It reads: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believe...

“Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him...” Genesis 12:1-4a ESVIn the fall ...

New beginnings can be exciting and overflowing with anticipation, yet simultaneously intimidating and steep with challenges. As followers of Jesus, we are blessed with a different perspective on the new year than most. The world tells you that January 1st is the big opportunity to get your life together. To make it happen, rewrite your life and rewire your habits. From a surface-level view, it can...

“Like a drama unfolding, the curtain was opening; / an audience of angels was holding its breath; / a census, a manger, two travel worn strangers; / the stage was finally set; / Angels folded their wings at the throne, worshiping; / As God whispered, I love you, my Son; / Jesus took off His crown and laying it down; / Said, Father, Thy will be done; // The time had now come for God's only Son; / T...

Welcome to Advent week 2! As I read the texts leading up to the Birth of Jesus, I try to place myself in the shoes of those that God is interacting with. Sometimes that takes a lot more cultural and historical context to sort out all the nuances. But there are always aspects that we can relate to more readily. These are real people with real problems and experiences, just like us.For example, it t...

I grew up as a true Southern Baptist—I’m talking a monthly-potluck-eating, wooden-pew-sitting, Alabama-boondocks-living Southern Baptist. I thought I knew everything there was to know about church by the time I got to grade school. You can imagine my surprise during my junior year of high school when my youth pastor introduced our church to a season called Advent. I had never heard of this traditi...

Reading the Bible, Hearing the Voice of God  As I am writing this, I look as shelves of books. Hundreds of books, ranging from classic novels, to systematic theologies, scores of Biblical commentaries, books on church growth, and Christian living. Each of these books are noteworthy, having contributed to the field of literature, theology, ecclesiology, or living the faith.  I am reminded of walkin...

Don’t Skip the SunscreenThe Temptation of Jesus. We often pass over the first few verses of this experience and jump straight into stones becoming bread, the promise of kingdoms, and some sort of angelic trust-fall. As if the only thing we need when Satan shows up with wild and bombastic ideas is to say “no” and spout off a few Scripture references. First of all, the texts from Mat. 4, Mark 1, and...

In the first of three The Lord of the Rings movies, Frodo and his closest hobbit friends (the Fellowship), along with three humans and a wizard (Gandalf), embarked on a journey to Mount Doom to destroy an evil ring. During this journey, the Fellowship lost Gandalf in a battle with a wicked demon. This event took the wind out of the sails of the Fellowship, and Frodo was in a dark place, as he had ...

Joshua was afraid to take on the task God called him to do. And who can blame him? Moses, the friend of God, was his predecessor, and he left Joshua with impossible-to-fill shoes. Sure, Joshua had been groomed for his task by Moses and by God. He was a warrior with a proven track record. But this job—this was more than leading battles and military campaigns. This was leading the nation of Israel, ...